In the end it was some sort of surge which blew a circuit breaker, but the complicated lighting system of the Superdome takes a long time to "reboot."

One interesting part of the story is that on Super Bowl Sunday the Department of Energy posted a story bragging about the energy-saving lighting system used by the New Orleans stadium:

While the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers compete to hoist the Vince Lombardi trophy this weekend, eco-friendly fans and city leaders in New Orleans are competing to maximize sustainability practices to the fullest.

To make this the greenest Super Bowl, the New Orleans Host Committee has partnered with fans and the community to offset energy use across the major Super Bowl venues.

The exterior of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome features more than 26,000 LED lights on 96 full-color graphic display panels, designed to wash the building in a spectrum of animated colors, patterns and images. The system draws only 10 kilowatts of electricity -- equivalent to the amount of energy used by a small home -- and the lights are expected to last for many years before needing replacement.

you do realize they were talking about the led lights, the playing field is not lit with leds have your ever been to a sporting event those lights take time to come on ,it's not like in your apartment has nothing to do with them being energy efficient

you do realize they were talking about the led lights, the playing field is not lit with leds have your ever been to a sporting event those lights take time to come on ,it's not like in your apartment has nothing to do with them being energy efficient

"Shortly after the beginning of the second half of the Super Bowl in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, a piece of equipment that is designed to monitor electrical load sensed an abnormality in the system. Once the issue was detected, the sensing equipment operated as designed and opened a breaker, causing power to be partially cut to the Superdome in order to isolate the issue.